Occupations & workplace: Why the continuing gender bias in some jobs?

Men may be from Mars and women from Venus, but does the difference in gender affect their choice of jobs? Empirically, it would appear so.

At the same time, occupational segregation by sex - the tendency of men and women to work in different occupations - is a common reason for gender differences in wages.

Over the years, however, the movement of women into traditionally predominantly male occupations reduced occupational segregation to a considerable degree, as a result of women increasing their representation in previously male white-collar and service jobs significantly faster than the increase in their share of total employment.

In the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, the movement of women into higher-paying, traditionally-male occupations contributed to the narrowing of the gender pay gap. Thus, in 1970, 69% of men worked in heavily-male - defined as 20% or less female - occupations and 45.8% of women were employed in heavily - more than 80% - female occupations. Though these numbers have become less skewed over the years, occupational segregation persists. And so do wage differences.

A recent NBER paper looks at the pattern of occupational segregation in the US during the period 1970-2009 in a bid to understand the factors responsible for these differences. It finds that after an initial period of convergence, the pace of desegregation, of gender-neutrality in occupations, has again slowed down.

Thus, managerial, professional and service occupations all exhibited notable decreases in the share of men in the major occupation category employed in heavily-male occupations over this period, as women entered a number of these jobs. As a result, many traditionally-male professions moved out of the heavily-male category, including lawyers, physicians and surgeons, architects, economists and veterinarians (to name just a few).

However, there are still some heavily-male professional jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM fields). The clergy also remains heavily male though there has been an increase in the representation of women in most cases.

Consistent with previous research, the paper finds that the decline in occupational segregation by sex has been slowing and, by the 2000s, the decrease in segregation had become extremely modest.

Most of the reduction in occupational segregation achieved over the period as a whole was primarily due to women entering formerly predominantly-male occupations - particularly white collar and service jobs - rather than to men entering formerly predominantly-female occupations. There was no evidence of similar female gains in blue-collar jobs.

Reductions in occupational segregation were correlated with education, with the largest decreases among college graduates and very little change in the extent of occupational segregation among high-school dropouts. However, the decline in occupational segregation by sex has been slowing.

The paper analysis suggests that for desegregation to pick up pace, women would need to begin to make significant inroads into areas where they have not so far, especially predominantly male blue-collar jobs, and continue to build on their gains in STEM fields; and/or men would need to enter predominantly-female occupations in much larger numbers than they have in the past.

A large entry of men into predominantly-female occupations is unlikely, say the authors, as long as such jobs continue to pay less for workers with similar characteristics, men have little incentive to enter them in large numbers. This might change somewhat, depending on the long-term impact of the recent recession on male blue-collar jobs.

Encouraging the entry of women into areas where they are under-represented appears more promising. With respect to the STEM fields, enhancing the performance of girls and young women in mathematics is a reasonable target of policy.

How to do so remains an active area of inquiry, but it is encouraging that, although a gender gap in maths scores on high-school maths achievement tests and the SATs remains, it has declined as the high-school course work of young men and women has grown more similar. Moreover, gender differences in maths scores vary considerably across countries.

Research suggests that while there are gender differences in preferences and beliefs - which may be socially influenced - that may affect occupational choices, there are also obstacles - some subtle or structural in nature - to women's entry and advancement in traditionally-male fields. These must be addressed by governments and firms.